LCC threats: The Environment, fuel prices, aircraft financing and fees & taxes

Perhaps typically for this innovative and creative sector, most airline CEOs frequently see threats and opportunities as being part of the same challenge. Even such external threats as high fuel prices are often talked of as being a helpful prompt to improve efficiencies. Part of this can be put down to good marketing talk, but the continuing belief in the "rightness" of the particular model which each airline espouses shines through with the fervour of missionaries. As a consequence, it was often hard to distinguish between when the various CEOs were describing a threat or an opportunity. If this appears to cause contradictions in the following account, then it reflects accurately the inputs.